The political landscape of the world is certainly a very complicated situation. The amount of wisdom needed by those operating in that arena is immense and they need our prayers. But on the other hand, the root of these problems is as simple as jealousy and lust and as old as Cain and Abel. Abel’s sacrifice was received by the Lord and Cain’s was not. Cain was jealous, lusted after his brother’s success, and killed him. 

Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask (James 4:1-2 NKJV).

And when He had come to His own country, He taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished and said, "Where did this Man get this wisdom and these mighty works?  "Is this not the carpenter's son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas?  "And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this Man get all these things?"  So they were offended at Him. But Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor except in his own country and in his own house"(Matthew 13:54-57 NKJV).

The local people who knew Jesus acknowledged that He had wisdom and did mighty works. But rather than rejoicing with him, they revealed their peer jealousy. They said, “Where did this man get this wisdom? He is just a carpenter’s son and we know his family!” Therefore, because they were jealous and viewed Jesus as a peer, they were offended at Him.

Most all of us have seen or experienced this kind of jealousy in some form or another. Maybe it was a  little league baseball coach who was jealous of the coach of the winning team. Maybe it was the person passed over for a promotion at work who became jealous of the person who was promoted. Or maybe it was the pastor that just couldn't stand it when another pastor in town seemed to be more anointed or successful. Regardless of the case, the dynamics are the same.

I remember when I published my first book. It took a lot of work and I was excited about finishing the project and the message it contained. So I sent free copies to many of my friends. Some rejoiced with me. Yet, others had that unmistakable look on their faces or tone in their voices that said, “I know you. Who do you think you are to write a book? You can’t have anything important to say.” As I pondered those responses, I remembered times past when I had those same attitudes toward others.

Having such feelings is really quite common and we should not feel ashamed, as long as we admit that we are dealing with a sinful attitude and repent before God. But too often, rather than acknowledging the truth, we go into denial and look for faults in the person we are jealous of to justify our baseless offense. That is easy to do because no one is perfect; if we look, we can always find fault in others. That is bad enough, but then, we might even scandalize them by letting others know of their faults. In fact, the word for “offended” in the original language is skandalizo (Greek) and is where we get the word "scandalize." It means "to entrap or trip up." 

In God’s economy, there is room for everyone to be a complete success. In fact, if we have a friend who turns out to be a prophet, and we receive him as such, then we will have the same reward in the kingdom of God (see Matthew 10:41). But, if we move in peer jealousy, get offended, and scandalize him, I shudder to think what our reward will be! Peer jealousy is a grievous sin.

The problems in this world are huge and it may seem that we have little influence on the global stage. But who knows what profound effect we may have and what levels of success we may achieve corporately, if we simply rejoice with the successes of our brothers and sisters and cover their faults instead of scandalize them? 

God has a unique purpose for each of us. Success is finding out what that purpose is and fulfilling it, no matter how simple or different it may be. In that, we should be content. This is a purpose perspective.